Zombie robots? It could happen, and it often did in Transformers: Prime.

Since Transformers has been remade so many times over the past 40 years, new cartoons sometimes use a central gimmick to stand out from the crowd. "Beast Wars" featured robots that transformed into animals instead of vehicles. The 2003 anime series Transformers: Armada cashed in on the Pokemon craze and had the Autobots and Decepticons fighting over "Mini-Cons," human-sized Transformers that could unlock great powers in larger ones. The currently airing "Transformers: Earthspark" introduced a new group of characters called "Terrans", who are Transformers created on Earth instead of the metal planet Cybertron.

For the 2010-2013 Transformers: Prime cartoon, the gimmick was Dark Energon. Energon is the primary fuel source of the Transformers and literally the power source of their creator, Primus. Dark Energon (which glows a sickly purple instead of crystal blue) is the blood of Primus' shadow self, Unicron. Since Unicron cannot create life, only pervert it, Dark Energon can reanimate dead Transformers as savage monsters called "Terrorcons" - again, robotic zombies.

Hasbro

Transformers: Prime began with the five-part miniseries Darkness Rising, in which Megatron attempts to use Dark Energon to create an army of Terrorcon. To control them, Megatron injects himself with some of the substance, which makes him extra powerful, but also (even more) unstable. This plot culminates in the Season 1 finale, "One Shall Rise," where the Autobots and Decepticons must team up to stop Unicron from being resurrected.

Dark Energon continues to appear throughout the next two seasons of Transformers: Prime. In "Flying Mind" he brings the Decepticons warship to life. In "Alpha/Omega", Megatron forges a superpowered sword (the "Dark Star Saber") from Dark Energon. Then, in Thirst, Starscream and the Decepticon doctor Knockout accidentally start the plague on Terrorcon.

Thirst terrorcons are closer to vampires, even having nested mouths a la the Reaper vampires from "Blade II". However, the basic setting lies in the 1985 zombie horror-comedy Return of the Walking Dead.

With Transformers: Prime' already relying on zombies, a direct homage episode was inevitable. Since Darkness Rising was already playing the undead for horror, that homage was chosen instead pull from a famous zombie comedy.

Return of the Living Dead actually had the events of Night of the Living Dead happen, sort of. A military engineered chemical called Trioxin was spilled and created zombies, but the plague was controlled. George Romero then embraced the idea of ​​the dead rising to make a hit movie (changing the details around to avoid a lawsuit), while Trioxin was accidentally sent to a medical supply warehouse. One day, warehouse supervisor Frank (James Karen) shows the trioxin to new boyfriend Freddy (Tom Matthews), only for them to release it and start a zombie plague.

Their attempts to contain the epidemic fail at every turn. Stabbing zombies in the brain, what the movies tell us should make the undead die? It doesn't work. (“You think the movie lies?!”) Throwing zombies in a crematorium? It contaminates the acid rain storm outside with trioxin, causing the outbreak to spread to a nearby cemetery.

Several sources, including Transformers Wiki.previously noted how "Thirst" bows to "Return of the Living Dead." The telltale sign is how the Terrorcons also can't be killed by typical zombie-destroying headshots. Knockout, having apparently seen horror movies in theaters, learns the same lesson as Freddy: sometimes, movies lie. As in The Return, Starscream and Knock Out refrain from alerting the proper authorities (in this case, Megatron) until the situation has already gotten out of hand. After all, if yours the boss was a thirty-foot-tall shark-faced robot with a huge gun on his right hand, you do you want him to know that you screwed up like this?

While entertaining, Thirst cannot and should not be viewed in isolation. It is one of the last episodes of "Transformers: Prime" (episode 60 of 65), and on the last relatively standalone one before the final story arc begins. Even a few fancy sentences of exposition (ie Knock Out to get new Dark Energon viewers up to speed) can't have the full impact.

Many subplots converge in Thirst as well. For example, in the season 1 episode "Stronger, Faster", the Autobot doctor Ratchet refined a synthetic green form of Energon that functioned as a steroid. (growth, voiced by Jeffrey Combs from Re-Animator, playing around with green liquid? Someone on the Transformers: Prime writing team was a horror fan.)

Knockout got the synthetic energon at the end of "Stronger, Faster" and it finally pays off here; combining Synth-En and Dark Energon is what creates the outbreak. However, "Thirst" also shows the consequences of long-standing television beyond just the ever-increasing barrier to entry. Up to this point, the writers knew Starscream and Knock Out were the MVPs of the series, especially when combined together, so Thirst takes full advantage of that. Steve Bloom's range as Starscream was undeniable, going from scary to goofy on a dime and dropping or raising his voice an octave along the way. Darran Norris' smooth and angry performance as the self-obsessed Knockout is what made the Decepticon doctor into the show's most popular character. (Knockout? More like Breakout.)

The two "cons" are both cowardly, selfish, and hilarious, and watching them (fail) to deal with the disaster of their own making makes Thirst one of the must-see episodes of Transformers.